Redbull Airshow
I spent yesterday (Sunday) at the Redbull airshow across in Longleat. It was a few hours drive away, so we left about 8am and got there for 10.30am. I “won” the tickets in my getting in the top 100 on the game they had on their website, but the real story is I phoned up and told them I had a database error which prevented me from getting into the top 100; this may have been a white lie of sorts.
After arriving and being directed into a parking space we picked up a free colour programme and walked down a very big hill to get towards where the event was happening. There was a number of viewing areas and we decided to go to one closest to us as there were a few spaces for the collapsible chairs that we had taken a long with us. The next two hours saw us trying to keep Kieran entertained!
At 12.30 the event started to kick off, starting with an interview with the slightly eccentric Lord Bath who still lives in Longleat House (which is a work of beauty in itself). After this came an a display of acrobats in two stunt planes by the British racers that were taking part in the event, then a few other bits and pieces including a parachute jump (which Kieran really enjoyed).
Then at around 2.30pm the “real” show started; the basic concept being that there are 8 flyers, each having to complete two rounds of racing – the times and then added together for the two rounds and the person who has the shortest wins the race. Mixed in with this are the low pylons that have to be entered and stunts that have to be done at certain points.
Here are a few photos from the event:
The only main bad point about the day was the organisation of the car park on the way back – the attendants who showed us all where to park had disappeared and this resulted in 60,000 people all trying to get out of two exits; hundreds of different traffic jams occurred and luckily I managed to get out in an hour! Plenty of people were left behind to fight their way out of the mess. It also took about 4 hours to get back from the area due to the amount of traffic on the way back from the home counties into London.
All in all a good day with the only cost being the fuel to get there – thank you Redbull!